Standard electrical plugs are provided with prongs normally inserted into corresponding resilient, for example, spring-loaded prong-holders embedded within a socket, and which are to be mated with the plug. These initially resilient or spring-loaded prong-holders, however, lose some of their resiliency in time, and consequently their ability to firmly hold the prongs of the plug decreases with the passage of time also. This, in turn, leads often to intermittent operation of the devices connected through the plug to the corresponding socket, or, alternatively, the plug may be accidentally and unintentionally removed from the socket. This results at best in an inconvenience to the user, but may even have worse consequences, when, for example, children attemp to play with the plug and socket, disconnect the plug during such play, and may even come in contact with the live and electrically active portions of the prong holder or prong holders in the socket.
Ways and means have already been sought to make such a plug and socket connection at least reasonably safe for children. Thus Newman, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,624 teaches an electric outlet wall protector, while Toraya in U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,858 teaches a cover plate for a socket, and Getzoff in U.S. Pat. No. 2,559,151 teaches a safety guard for electric outlets.
All of the above-noted prior art devices solve, however, only part of the problem, namely they make the outlet at least safe for children, for example. No means are provided in these known devices to guard against any deterioration in the resilient properties of the prong-holder in existing wall sockets, or other sockets already available on the market, namely to provide a a more secure connection between a plug and a socket, which reduces the likelihood of the connection being subject to frequent malfunction. Furthermore the devices of the prior art are bulky and unwieldy, and not capable of being easily retrofitted.